Commentary by Councilmember Charlie Bronitsky

Upcoming Issues

This afternoon we will be having a closed session as we commence the process to look for a replacement for our City Manager, Jim Hardy. This is a bittersweet process for us all as Jim has been running the City for a long time. What is most important is that we do this right, not quickly, and I am pretty confident that we will come to the correct result.

The regular meeting, which starts as 6:30, has some significant issues for our future. One item on the agenda is the approval of the letter of intent between the City and Illumina, Inc. for a new campus at the far end of Third. I am hopeful that this will be a win-win for us and for Illumina.

Also on the agenda is the hiring of CH2M Hill to act as the project manager for the upcoming 20 year wastewater treatment plant modifications and improvements. We are partners in our wastewater treatment plant with San Mateo and we will, in the coming years, be updating the plant and hopefully generating some recycled water that we can use in the City for irrigation. I have also talked to some folks in Redwood City in the hope that we could use some of their recycled water on the other side of the City for similar use. It is something we will be exploring further this year.

Next Monday, starting at 4:00, we will be holding our first Budget Study Session. The review, modification and approval of the budget is probably the most important thing we do every year. If you want to learn more about it, come meet with us next week.

On the 2nd of February we will be looking at the Housing Element of the City’s General Plan. I know that many of you are concerned about continued housing growth, so this would be a good meeting to come to and learn more about the process and give us your feedback.

On the 23rd of February we will see a return of the Marina Project. I hope you will all come out for that as well.

If you haven’t made a new year’s resolution yet, make one to get more involved. This will be an election year for Foster City, with a majority of the seats on the Council open for election, including one open seat vacated by Art Kiesel who will be termed out. In addition, there may be a school bond on the ballot and I am sure that the state will have other issues of interest for us to decide.